95-06-18 Avail – Four Walls Falling – Sensefield – Faroutski

‘Four Walls Falling’ (also from Richmond) were here for the 2^nd time (see 93-10-03): Taylor Steele (vocals) left his brother (Robert ‘Bo’) at home this time. He was replaced by Cam DiNunzio (guitar). The other guitarist was John (Stuart) Peters, John Papazoglou played bass (Bill Thidemann who played in ‘93 wasn’t on this tour) and Jared Srsic did drums. In 1994 they had recorded for the Food for Worms LP that came out on Day After recs (from the Czech Republic) with David Milton Tunkel playing bass. Thomas Crawley (‘Ipecac’) roadied on this 1995 tour. Rob(ert) Vlcek was the road-manager from the tour. The band broke up while being on tour in Europe that year but played a reunion-show later on…

Taylor Steele (with Vique Martin in the background) – credit: Sébastien Iaria

‘Sensefield’ (from Redondo Beach – near Los Angeles, California) were a Revelation recs band (at that time). Their LPs Killed For Less (’94) & Building (’96) were released on Jordan Cooper’s label. The band then consisted of Chris Evenson & Rodney Sellars (guitar), John ‘Slow Johnny’ Stockberger (bass), Jon(athan) Bunch (vocals) and Scott McPherson (drums). Their music could be described as emotive, passionate ‘posi’ HC based on rocking guitars. They were touring together with ‘Four Walls Falling’.

‘Avail’ from Richmond (Virginia) were: ‘Beau’ Beau Butler (cheerleader/dancer), Joe Banks (guitar), Tim Barry (vocals – drums on the 1^st EP), Erik Larson (drums; later replaced by Ed Trask of ‘Holy Rollers’ & ‘Kepone’) and Rob(ert) Kelshian (bass; ex ‘Ipecac’ – who replaced Charles ‘Chuck’ McCauley). ‘Avail’ released their first LP, Satiate, on Catheter-Assembly recs in 1992. It was re-issued on Old Glory recs (who also released Live At The King’s Head Inn) and on CD by LookOut! Recs, in 1994. C-A also put out the Attempt To Regress EP (recorded in ’92). They also put out the Dixie CD after that… 4AM Friday was recorded with Rob on bass (LookOut! ’96). The later records were with bassist Justin ‘Gwomper’ Burdick. I believe that the ‘Avail’ tour was organised by Lookout! Europe (Christy Colcord and/or Mary-Jane Weatherby and/or Aidan Taylor)…

‘Avail’ (photographed by Joeri Hoste)

‘Faroutski’ (from the Kortrijk area) was started after ‘Fireside’ (92-10-04) split up. They called their music punkrock’n’roll and stated they were “a DIY band in the tradition of old punk-bands”. They released their material on their own Funarchy label (previously Rocklabyrinth recs). The band consisted of people of the scene around the Pits (small rock/indie venue): Geert ‘Barney’ Blomme (drums), ‘Kyvie’ Johan Dekyvere (guitar) and Rine Amelynck (bass).

I think Maximum Rock’n’Roll columnist and singer of the band ‘Siren’, Brian Zero, was there too. Perhaps with some other members of his band (drummer Kevin McCracken, bassist Joe Carr & guitarist Adam Glidewell)? ‘Siren’ would put a record (Becoming Wheels) out on the Czech label Day After recs (who also did the European version of the ‘Four Walls Falling’ LP)… I recall getting along with Brian quite well: he’d written an article on Corporate Punk for M.R.R. If I remember well he also wrote about the Vort’n Vis in a column for M.R.R. He got ‘stuck’ in Europe, it seems, as he’s now a teacher in Prague.

I’m not really sure but I think there was some commotion at this gig because ‘Avail’s Beau Beau was dancing rather violently and I addressed that because the V.V. had a policy against it. Don’t remember exactly but this might have stirred things up a bit? Unfortunately not everyone could appreciate it… ‘Avail’s drummer responded in a kinda awkward way – over-reacted. Jaak ‘N.O.F.’ wrote me afterwards that I had “spoiled” it because the audience was really enjoying the concert and some people (3!) left! There’s supposed to be a picture of Beau in Aaron Vyvial’s zine Love Child zine stating “Brob broke Beau’s nose”…!!??

Brob

The reaction of the ‘Avail’ drummer and dancer were simply wrong. But your response to that…!? You spoiled things for the band and for the few in the audience that were really enjoying them. (Perhaps you didn’t notice but besides myself there were 3 others that went outside.).

Jaak ‘Nations On Fire’, personal communication June 95

I was at Vort’n Vis during this show. I think. I was there a couple times more, maybe with ‘Lifetime’? I cant recall…

Miroslav ‘Mira’ Pátý, Day After recs

I booked the ‘4 Walls Falling’ / ‘Sensefield’ tour… Also was at the V.V. a month later with ‘Lifetime’…

Robert ‘Veg’ Vlček, ‘Clean Slate’

I had a great time. The journey back only took 7 hours (as opposed to 9 hours coming!)… I’m coming back to see ‘Sensefield’ on July 5^th [That was in Leuven.]. [Vique was here with her fellow Brighton-ian with Mark ‘Macca’ Wilkinson]

Vique ‘Simba’ Martin; personal communication June ‘95

I was in ‘Avail’ from ‘91 to ‘94 and never played outside of the States.

Charles ‘Chuck’ McCauley

I remember enjoying playing in Belgium – we had two shows there. That was the first time we had toured Europe and, while people had told us that it was a little different than touring in the U.S., I don’t think we really knew what to expect. That’s not to say that we had a bad time but Belgium (and particularly the show in Ieper) was where things kind of picked up and got us feeling better about our overall experience – so I will always remember that. Pete the Roadie (he roadied for ‘Citizen Fish’) ‘s wife Paula [Hibbs-Rines, ex ‘Spitboy’] organized the tour for us and our driver was a guy named Dave who played in a band called ‘Maggot Slayer Overdrive’ [from Bristol] – hope that helps!

Robert Kelshian, ‘Avail bassist’

Yup, I booked, drove & tour-managed ‘Avail’s first Europe tour – great!! Peter from the Lintfabriek was promoter for the show…

Paula Hibbs-Rines

John Papazoglou was a friend of ours. He played in ‘Lucy Brown’ before ‘4WF’. Actually it was him or Dave on that tour. I can’t remember for sure but he was the last bass-player in the band.

William Thidemann

I was indeed drumming for ‘4WF’ in 1995. Tommy Anthony was our substitute drummer for the first European tour that occurred in 1993. I remember the Ieper show only in that it was towards the end of our tour and the sets where getting better sounding and tighter in performance. I remember the stage being quite shallow but the sound-system and crowd being great!!

Jared Srsic

Actually we had parted ways with Dave right after we recorded Food For Worms. I don’t remember much: we played 50 shows in 53 days, things tend to blur. I lived in the same house in Richmond with Tim, Beau, ‘Gwomper’ & Erik.

Taylor Steele, ‘4 Walls Falling’

Rob Kelshan played on the 4AM Friday record and did two tours with ‘Avail’. I joined on the last tour… That guy Rob tried to sue the band for money. So he’s not the most loved person. We refer to him as “he who will not be named”…

‘Gwomper’

I wish I had more memories, I remember very small bottles of strong beer in Belgium. I wish I could remember more, Europeans are too generous with the beer. Did someone tag the wall there with “It’s Avail not Awail!”?

Rodney Sellars, ‘Sensefield’

On the evening of July 17th 1995 some friends and I were going through the list of Bruno, one of the guys who was programming at the Vort’n Vis, and that’s how we learned that the next day there was a concert featuring ‘Avail’, ‘4 Walls Falling’ & ‘Sensefield’. What a bill! And what to do? Nothing! 700 kilometres to show up in Ypres at Vort’n Vis. We said why not, damn! After all, we can’t do shit here anyway. But we were a bit misguided about that because it’s still long, 700 kilometres at night without sleep. It’s a horror to travel up North [France, and the into Belgium]. Hamlets such as Saint-Quentin and Laon: it just makes one wish to become an alcoholic. Anyway, the next day we were in Ypres and we had to get through the day. We visited the military cemeteries and it certainly sucked as much as anywhere else, but in another way. Then the time of the gig arrived and we found the Vort’n Vis. For god’s sake! I didn’t expect this! The Vort’n Vis was somewhat of a mythical place for us. We’d heard about it for a long time (at least 3 years) and I really didn’t know what to expect but it wasn’t this. The concert took place in the pub (I only discovered the hall on another occasion). So this time things happened in the pub and it really looked like a pub. And besides that, it was tiny! I expected, for bands like this, to find myself in a venue with a capacity of 300 people, but it wouldn’t have accommodated more than 50 [Brob: We were used to cramming a lot more than this…]. The concert started with ‘Faroutski’, a local band that didn’t make a big impression. The band that I came over for was ‘4 Walls Falling’. Surely that was my sXe streak. I knew about ‘Sensefield’ because they were ex ‘Reason To Believe’ but I thought that sounded a bit cheesy. The concert taught me to like ’em better. I had records by ‘Avail’ and the image I had of them, was that of a melodic punk-band with emo tendencies. Not bad but not transcendantal! But dammit friends, what a blast on stage! And what a revelation! The singer aswell as the drummer went berserk, and on top of that there was some sort of eccentric that jumped in all directions and who wasn’t far from frightening because he was doing whatever. The dude was a member of the band, he was some sort of dancer. I’d heard he had been a soldier who had deserted and who had taken refuge in the punk-community of Richmond. He follwed ‘Avail’ on tour not to get caught. In any case, they gave us a hell of a spectacle, Beau Beau and ‘Avail’. And when listening to their second album Dixie, I couldn’t but like it. Which wasn ‘t the case with the third LP 4am Friday. It wasn’t until I felt I needed to sort my CDs that I realised that yes, that album has the same quality as Dixie. Certainly a bit of a better production and a bit less brutal (whatever…), and that’s probably what I didn’t like at the time. Nowadays, I think it’s a great album and ‘Avail’ was a fantastic band. I’ve no regrets about the 700 kilometres long travel, the inhospitable places and the meals we had to put up with. And even if it was ‘4 Walls Falling’ that I wanted to see, it’s ‘Avail’ that I remembered when I got back. What I do regret, is that the next day, there was another one in another Belgian town, with more or less the same bill but with ‘Lifetime’ and ‘State Of The Nation’ (I don’t really remember but I believe that that bill was more than unbelievable – I wonder if ‘Kosjer D’ didn’t play there aswell…). I told my mates we should stay, now that we were there, to take advantage of the opportunity. But no, we returned that night. The next day, there was someone who had to do something. What? That’s the question… Definitely getting bored, no doubt…

Jean-Marc Moratille, ‘Rawness’ drummer (on his blog)

excerpt from the V.V. guestbook:

additions wellcome!…